1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a personalized ring phone which allows people to customize the phone to ring in various distinctive ways such that they will be able to recognize the various customized phone rings and be able to determine who the caller wished to speak to. Another option which may be offered instead of a phone is a unit that attaches to regular phones and would have a customized ring function. Additionally, individualized answering machines can be incorporated into the phone whereby, when a certain person leaves, that individual can set the phone to record messages from callers who had specifically called to talk to that certain person.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The present invention relates to a personalized ring phone which allows various people to customize the phone to ring in various ways according to which person is being called such that each person will recognize the customized phone ring and be able to immediately determine who the caller wishes to speak to. Ultimately, when a caller calls a subscriber who has the personalized ring phone, immediately they will get a prerecorded message which informs them as to what number to press in order to get a particular individual. The caller will then, using a touchtone telephone, press the appropriate number in order to talk to the persons which they wish to speak to. Once the number is pressed, the phone will then ring the customized ring and the people being called will immediately know who the call is for. In cases in which the person calling is not using a touchtone telephone, the caller then can wait until the message is over in order to get a standard ring. Also, if the caller already knows the number to press in order to reach the person they wish to speak to, the button can be pressed immediately after the call is put through, thus allowing for quicker access. In some models, individualized answering machines may be incorporated into the phone whereby, when a certain person leaves the premises, the individual leaving can set the phone to record messages from callers who had specifically called to talk to that particular individual. Another option which may be offered is a unit that attaches to regular telephones where the unit has the customized ring function. This would allow for any standard phone to ring a customized ring instead of a regular common ring. In this present invention, the sound of the ring is capable of being customized via being recorded on a dynamic random access memory chip with any sound that the user wishes to input via a built in microphone. After the incoming caller selects the party they wish to talk to, the phone will ring with that particular person's ring. If there is no answer, the call will go to the selected person's answering machine such that the number of rings before the answering machine picks up is programmable.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,506,791, issued Apr. 14, 1970 to J. Halaby discloses a Telephone System For Directing Calls To Persons Instead Of Stations in which an incoming call received by a central station causes the wireless transmission of a signal identifying the person being called. The person identified wears a transceiver which alerts the person to the fact that he/she is being called. That person then goes to any of a number of special telephones which are actuated by the person's transceiver to control a selector to connect the incoming call to the telephone thusly approached. The incoming telephone call actuates the transceiver to alert the person receiving the call of the incoming call, rather than actuating the telephone to ring with a distinctive ring for each of a number of persons receiving calls.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,936,617, issued Feb. 3, 1976 to Duane Ridgely Bolgiano discloses a Code-Controlled Ringer Attachment For Telephones which selectively deactivates a telephone bell on a telephone instrument such that when a telephone number is called, an auxiliary system automatically cuts in to prevent ringing of the bell until a predetermined code is initiated by the calling station, at which time the telephone bell is actuated. This particular invention is used to screen calls by rejecting any calls which are received for which the caller does not input a predetermined code to allow the call to be received by the receiving telephone.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,943,289, issued Mar. 9, 1976 to Norman A. Sheldon et al. discloses an Automatic Telephone Caller where a prerecorded message is supplied to a plurality of telephone subscriber numbers automatically called in sequence from a local station.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,006,316, issued Feb. 1, 1977 to Duane Ridgely Bolgiano discloses a Code-Controlled Detection And Function Actuating System which screens out undesired signals from desired signals via selective programming of the system through programmed codes. This system also has means to utilize the desired signals to effect the performance of a selected function such as the sounding of a signalling means to indicate the transmission of the desired signals, the activation or deactivation of electrically controlled devices, or the actuation of a reprogramming means, the system being especially adapted to utilization in a telephone system for screening out undesirable calls and permitting desirable calls to effect activation of the selected functions. This system may be used simultaneously with all phone instruments on a given line and provides a system that can be programmed either manually or by remote control through the ordinary dial or touch-call apparatus. The system will also effect complete silence or actuate any other type of signal, such as a busy signal or the like, when the correct code is not dialed or touch-called, so that there is no indication whether there is anyone at the number being called or not, thus providing protection against possible burglaries. This system can also be programmed for a plurality of different codes so that if a certain code refers to a certain party, it can be determined that such party has called if the phone is not answered, This system may also be utilized to remotely control the functions or monitor the functions of various electrically-operated devices such as lamps, heaters, air-conditioners, ovens and the like.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,850,013, issued Jul. 18, 1989 to H. Barry Rose discloses a Telephone Call Screening Apparatus to be connected in combination with a conventional telephone receiver and its circuit which prevents the telephone receiver from being activated until a preselected code is supplied into the telephone circuit by the calling party.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,866,766, issued Sep. 12, 1989 to James E. Mitzlaff discloses a Telephone Device Having Customized Ring Capability incorporates a telephone set with a conventional keypad to allow the user to program a custom ring tone and patterns into the telephone set. After such programming is established, when the telephone set detects a ring signal from the central switching station, a ringer is activated and deactivated according to the programmed ringing parameters so as to provide a truly customized ring signal to the user.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,982,420, issued Jan. 1, 1991 to Peter F. Theis discloses a Recording System With Response Categorization which presents a user with a sequence of prompt messages and stores user responses to at least selected ones of these prompt messages, classifies the stored user responses in a first category when the user responds to a first one of the prompt messages and not to a second one of the prompt messages, and classifies the stored user responses in a second category when the user responds to both the first and second prompt messages. In addition, this system classifies the stored user responses in a third category when the response includes any one of a plurality of code words, and in a fourth category when the user response includes none of these code words. An alternate embodiment classifies stored user responses in accordance with the duration of the response to a selected prompt message. A first feature of this invention relates to a system which presents a user with a sequence of prompt messages and acts upon the responses to selected prompt messages to classify the user responses in a first category when the user responds to one of the prompt messages and not to the other, and a second category when the user responds to both of the prompt messages. Alternatively, the stored user responses can be classified based on the length of the user response to a selected prompt message. This feature of the invention can be used to store user responses from completed calls in a first storage sector and to store user responses from uncompleted calls, in which the user did not respond to all of the prompt messages, in a second storage sector. An operator can then retrieve the user responses in the first category from the first storage sector first for transcription and action. The uncompleted calls of the second category can be handled with lower priority. Similarly, calls with excessively long or excessively short responses to a particular prompt message can be categorized for high priority retrieval. According to a second feature of this invention, a system of the type that presents a user with at least one prompt message and records at least a portion of the user voice response is provided with at least first and second expression recognition means for generating first and second signals when a user voice response includes first and second expressions, respectively. The user response is classified in a first category when either one of the first and second signals is generated, and the user response is classified in a second category when neither of the first and second signals is generated. This second feature of the invention utilizes a probabilistic approach to categorize the user voice response. If the user response includes any one of a plurality of selected expressions or words, the response is classified in a first category. For example, if it is desired to segregate user responses relating to sales orders from user responses relating to other topics, the word recognition means should be adapted to detect words characteristically used in placing a sales order. If the user uses any one of these words, it is likely that the topic of the call is a sales order.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,998,272, issued Mar. 5, 1991 to James R. Hawkins, Jr. et al. discloses a Personal Voice Mail System adapted to be connected to a standard touch tone telephone. This system allows a subscriber to prerecord a message to be delivered to one or more called parties at a particular time. Additionally, the system can be made secure by requiring the called party to provide a confidential code before the message is relayed.
U.S. Pat No. 5,031,205, issued Jul. 9, 1991 to Stephen Phillips discloses an Auto Response Phone System that allows a user to automatically screen calls and respond without even talking into a telephone receiver. In one embodiment of the invention the system is built into a conventional telephone. In an alternative embodiment the system is built into a separate case and operates as an accessory. The system stores several messages in non-volatile electronic format. The user picks up the phone when called to identify the caller. The user can then speak to the caller or automatically send one of the pre-recorded messages. A special night button automatically gives a night time message and disables the telephone ringer. If the caller sends a predetermined sequence of touch tones the user's ringer is reactivated to permit emergency calls to be answered. A monitor capability allows the user to monitor all telephone transactions.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,172,404, issued Dec. 15, 1992 to Kazuo Hashimoto discloses a System For Coupling Telephone Answering Device And Voice Mail Apparatus Together. In this invention, a system combines a telephone answering device installed at each subscriber's premises and a voice mail center station. When integrated chip memory is used as recording media of the telephone answering device to record messages from a calling party, the memory becomes full to its capacity shortly, and the telephone answering device cannot fulfill its function. To prevent this, a voice mail side is set to a message-receiving mode and an incoming message is transferred from the telephone answering device side to the voice mail side by calling the voice mail side and receiving a particular signal from the telephone answering device side. Then, the telephone answering device restores its function and becomes capable of recording new incoming messages. It was a common usage of the voice mail center that a calling party directly record incoming messages in the voice mail center. In this system, however, an incoming message stored in the voice mail center can be transferred to the telephone answering device by controlling from the telephone answering device as occasion demands, and the incoming message can be stored in the telephone answering device. This system makes possible a new combination wherein a telephone answering device and a voice mail center, previously independent apparati, can control each other.
None of the above inventions and patents, taken either singly or in combination, is seen to describe the instant invention as claimed.